I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.

No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Daevar, Sub Rosa

While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.

Daevar on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold

The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.

Rainbows Are Free website

Ripple Music website

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Minerall, Strömung

The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.

Minerall on Bandcamp

Sulatron Records website

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Deathbird Earth, Mission

By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.

Deathbird Earth on Bandcamp

Deathbird Earth at SRA Records

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Thinning the Herd, Cull

Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.

Thinning the Herd website

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

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Phantom Druid, The Edge of Oblivion

Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.

Phantom Druid on Bandcamp

Off the Record Label store

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The Grey, Kodok

Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.

The Grey on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra

With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.

Sun Below on Bandcamp

Sun Below’s Linktr.ee

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Tumbleweed Dealer, Dark Green

It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.

Tumbleweed Dealer on Bandcamp

Tumbleweed Dealer on Instagram

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NYTE VYPR, Plutonic

Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirected contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.

NYTE VYPR on Bandcamp

Owlripper Recordings on Bandcamp

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A friendly reminder that the end of the week is not, in fact, the end of the Quarterly Review, which will continue through Monday and Tuesday. That brings the number of releases covered to 70 total, which feels like plenty, and should hopefully carry us through a busy Spring release season. I’m thinking June for the next QR now but don’t be surprised if that turns into July as we get closer. All I know is I wanna do it before it’s two full weeks again.

As always, I hope you’ve found something that speaks to you in all this 10-per-day nonsense. If not, first, wow, really? Second, it ain’t over yet. Maybe today’s your day. One way to know.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager

You may be mellow-vibes, but unless you’re “Not the Season,” Dead Meadow have one up on you forever. While Voyager to Voyager, which is the L.A. band’s eighth or ninth LP depending on what you count, comes with the tragic real-world context of bassist Steve Kille‘s 2024 passing, he does feature on the long-running trio’s first offering through Heavy Psych Sounds, and whether it’s “The Space Between” or the shuffle-stepping “The Unhounded Now” or the pastoral “A Question of Will” and the jangly strum of “Small Acts of Kindness” later on, guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon, Kille and drummer Mark Laughlin celebrate the ultra-languid take on heavy, psychedelic and shoegazing rock that’s made Dead Meadow a household name for weirdos. Not that they’re not prone to a certain wistfulness, but Voyager to Voyager is vibrant rather than mournful, and the title-track is an album flow unto itself in just eight minutes. If you can slow your manic-ass brain long enough to sit and hear it front-to-back, you’re in for a treat.

Dead Meadow website

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Seán Mulrooney, This is My Prayer

There is a sense of stepping out as Irish troubadour Seán Mulrooney makes his full-length solo debut with This is My Prayer on Ómós Records. Mulrooney is best known for residing at the core of Tau and the Drones of Praise, and for sure, pieces of This is My Prayer are coming from a similar place, but where there was psychedelic meander for the band, under his own moniker, Mulrooney brings a clarity of tone and presence to lyrics ranging from spiritual seeking to what seems to have been an unceremonious breakup. With character and emotion in his voice and range in his craft, Mulrooney sees a better world on “Ag Múscliaghacht” and posits a new masculinity — totally needed; trainwreck gender — in “Walking With the Wind,” meets indie simplicity with lap steel in “Jaguar Dreams” and, in closer “The Pufferfish,” pens a fun McCartney-style bouncer about tripping sea life. These are slivers of the adventures undertaken in singer-songwriter style as Mulrooney hones this solo identity. Very curious to see where the adventure might take him.

Seán Mulrooney on Bandcamp

Ómós Records website

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MaidaVale, Sun Dog

Issued in 2024, Sun Dog is the third MaidaVale long-player, and with it, the Swedish heavy psychedelic rockers showcase six years’ worth of growth from their second album. Melancholic of mood in “Fools” and “Control” and the folkish “Alla Dagar” and “Vultures,” Sun Dog starts uptempo with the Afrobeat-influenced “Faces,” drifts, shreds, then drifts again in “Give Me Your Attention,” dares toward pop in “Daybreak” and fosters a sense of the ironic in “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Pretty Places,” the latter of which, with a keyboardier arrangement, could’ve been the kind of New Wave hit that would still be in your head 40 years later. The nine-songer (10 if you get “Perplexity,” which was previously only on the vinyl) doesn’t dwell in any single space for too long — only “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Vultures” are over four minutes, though others are close — and that lets them balance the downer aspects with forward momentum. MaidaVale are no strangers to that kind of movement, of course, but Sun Dog‘s mature realization of their sound feels so much more vast in range.

MaidaVale website

Silver Dagger Records website

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Causa Sui, Loppen 2024

Here come Causa Sui with another live album. And I’m not saying the only reason the thankfully-prolific Danish psychedelic treasures, heavyjazz innovators and El Paraiso label honchos are only releasing a complement to 2023’s Loppen 2021 (review here) to rub in the fact that I’ve never been lucky enough to catch them on a stage — any stage — but I am starting to take it personally. Call me sensitive. In any case, despite feeling existentially mocked by their chemistry and the fluidity of “Sorcerer’s Disciple” or the 22-minute “Visions of a New Horizon,” the hour-long set is glorious as one would expect, and though Loppen 2024 is a blip on the way to Causa Sui‘s forthcoming studio album, In Flux, especially when set alongside their previous outing from the same Christiania-based venue, it highlights the variable persona of the band and the reach of their material. Someday I’ll see this goddamn band.

Causa Sui’s Linktr.ee

El Paraiso Records website

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Fulanno, Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo

Underlying the grit and stoner drawl of “El Rey del Mundo de los Muertos” is the lurching progression of Black Sabbath‘s “Sweet Leaf,” and that reinterprative ethic comes to the strutting Pentagrammery of “La Verdad es Tu Ataud” as well, but in the tonal density and the way their groove snails its way into your ear canal, the vibe Fulanno bring to Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo is in line with stoner doom traditionalism, and the revelry is palbale in the slow nod of the title-track or the horror samples sprinkled throughout or the earlier Electric Wizard-style languidity of “El Nacimiento de la Muerte.” They save an acoustic stretch in reserve to wrap “Desde las Tinieblas,” but if you think that’s going to clean your soul by that point then you haven’t been paying attention. Unrepentantly dark, stoned and laced with devil-, death-and riff-worship, Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo further distinguishes Fulanno in an always crowded Argentinian underground, and dooms like a bastard besides.

Fulanno on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Smolder Brains Records on Bandcamp

Ruidoteka Records’ Linktr.ee

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Ze Stoner, Desert Buddhist

Because the age we live in permits such a thing and it tells you something about the music, I’m going to cut and paste the credits for Israeli duo Ze Stoner‘s debut EP/demo, Desert Buddhist. Dor Sarussi is credited with “bass guitar, spaceships, vocals,” while Alexander Krivinski handles “didgeridoo, spaceships, drums, and percussion.” How tripped out does a band need to be to have two members credited with “spaceships,” you ask? Quite tripped out indeed. Across the 12:09 “Part I – The Awakness” (sic) and the 11:41 “Part II – The Trip,” and the much-shorter 1:41 finale “Part III – The Enlightenment,” Ze Stoner take the meditative doom of Om or an outfit like Zaum and extrapolate from it a drone-based approach that retains a meditative character. It is extreme in its capacity to induce a trance, and as Desert Buddhist unfolds, it plays as longer movements tied together as a single work. There is massive potential here. One hopes Sarussi, Krivinski, their spaceships and didgeridoo are just beginning their adventures in the cosmos.

Ze Stoner on Bandcamp

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Arv, Curse & Courage

Oslo-based newcomers Arv aren’t shy about what their sound is trying to do. Their debut album, Curse & Courage, arrives via the wheelhouse of Vinter Records and brings together noise-laced and at-times-caustic hardcore with the atmospherics, echoing tremolo and churning intensity of post-metal. They lean to one side or the other throughout, and “Wrath” seems to get a bit of everything, but it’s a harder line to draw than one might think because hardcore as a style is all urgency and post-metal very often brings a more patient take. Being able to find a place in songwriting between the two, well, Arv aren’t the first to do it, but they are impressively cohesive for Curse & Courage being their first record, and the likes of “Victim,” the overwhelming rush of “Forsaken” earlier on and the more-ambient-but-still-vocally-harsh closing title-track set up multiple avenues for future evolution of the ideas they present here. Too aggressive to be universal in its appeal, but makes undeniable use of its scathe.

Arv website

Vinter Records website

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Fvzz Popvli, Melting Pop

I’m not sure what’s going on in “Erotik Fvel P.I.M.P.,” but there’s chicanery a-plenty throughout Fvzz Popvli‘s fourth full-length, Melting Pop, which is released in renewed cooperation with Heavy Psych Sounds. Hooks, fuzz, and the notion that anything else would be superfluous pervade the Indiana Jones-referencing “Temple of Doom” and “Telephone” at the outset, the latter with some choice backing vocals, and they kick the fuzz into overdrive on “Salty Biscvits” with room besides for a jangly verse. Running an ultra-manageable 30 minutes, the album breaks in half with four songs on each side. “Kommando” leads off the second half with dirtier low end tone ahead of the slower-rolling “Ovija,” which shouts and howls and is all kinds of righteously unruly, where “Cop Sacher” punks at the start and has both gang vocals and a saxophone, which I can say with confidence nothing else among the 70 records in this Quarterly Review even tried let alone pulled off, and they close with due swagger and surprising class in “The Knight.” Part of Fvzz Popvli‘s persona to this point has been based in rawness, so it’s interesting to hear them fleshing out more complex arrangments, but at heart they remain very much stoner rock for the glory of stoner rock.

Fvzz Popvli on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Rust Bucket, Rust Bucket

The tone worship is there, the working-class-dude stoner swing is there, and the humor that might result in a song like “Hypertension” — for which no less than Bob Balch of Fu Manchu sits in — so when I compare Rust Bucket to Maryland’s lost sons Earthride, please know that I’m not talking out of my ass. The Minnesota-based double-guitar five-piece revel in low end buzz-tone, and with no-pretense groove, throaty vocals and big personality, that spirit is there. Doesn’t account for the boogie of “Keep Us Down,” but everybody’s gotta throw down now and then. They shift into a sludgier mood by the time they get around to “The Darkness” and “Watch Your Back,” but the idea behind this first Rust Bucket feels much more like a bunch of guys getting together to hammer out some cool songs, maybe play some shows, do a record and see how it goes. On paper, that makes Rust Bucket an unassuming start, but its anti-bullshit stance, steady roll and addled swing make it a gem of the oldschool variety. Much to their credit, they call the style, “fuzzy caveman dad rock.” They forgot ‘bearded,’ but otherwise that about sums it up. Maybe the beard is implied?

Rust Bucket on Bandcamp

Glory or Death Records website

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Mountain Dust, Mountain Dust

It is appropriate that Mountain Dust named their third LP after themselves, since it finds them transcending their influences and honing a cross-genre approach that’s never sounded more their own than it does in these nine songs. From the densely-weighted misdirect of “Reap” with its Earth-sounding drone riff through the boogieing en route to the mellower and more open soul-showcase “Waiting for Days to End” — backing vocals included, see also “It’s Already Done” on side B — and the organ in “Vengeance,” the dynamic between the Graveyard-style ballad “This is It” and the keyboard/synth-fueled instrumental outro “All Eyes But Two,” Mountain Dust gracefullly subverts retroist expectations with individualized songwriting, performance and production, and this material solidifies the Montreal four-piece among the more flexible acts doing anything in the sphere of 1970s-style heavy rock. That’s still there, understand, but like the genre itself, Mountain Dust have very clearly grown outward from their foundations.

Mountain Dust website

Mountain Dust on Bandcamp

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I wanna say this will be Early Moods‘ first time embarking on a European tour, but I’m not actually sure that’s true, as they played Desertfest London in 2023. In any case, as the Los Angeles doom metallers continue to support their 2024 album A Sinner’s Past (review here), they’ll be out with Zig Zags and making stops at Freak Valley and Rock in Bourlon. As previously posted, Early Moods also have a Spring tour coming up on the US West Coast, where they’ll be joined by Marylander vintage heavy rockers Magick Potion.

That’s the basics, and whether or not it’s the band’s initial incursion to the continent itself, their going to Europe is good news. I look forward to seeing them at Freak Valley, as it’s been a few years.

From socials, plus that prior-announced Spring tour:

We’re excited to be heading to Europe this June with our labelmates @zigzagsmusic ! This tour will be starting in Denmark and ending in France, we can’t wait to see you all out there and have a good time. Which country will we be seeing you at?

Early Moods European Tour w/ Zig Zags
11/06 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK- STENGADE
12/06 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN- GERONIMO’S FGT
13/06 GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN- MONUMENT
14/06 AALBORG, DENMARK- STUDENTERHUSET
15/06 OLDENBURG, GERMANY- MTS
17/06 BOCHUM, GERMANY – DIE TROMPETE
18/06 NIJMEGEN, NETHERLANDS – MERLEYN
19/06 GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS – VERA
20/06 NETPHEN, GERMANY- FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL
21/06 BERLIN, GERMANY- NEUE ZUKUNFT
22/06 SLAVONICE, CZECH REPUBLIC – BARÁK
23/06 BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – ZALÁR
24/06 LINZ, AUSTRIA- KAPU
25/06 BASEL, SWITZERLAND – QUARTERDECK
26/06 AARAU, SWITZERLAND – KIFF
27/06 MANIGOD, FRANCE- NAMASS PAMOUSS
28/06 KARLSRUHE, GERMANY – ALTE HACKEREI
29/06 BOURLON, FRANCE- ROCK IN BOURLON

Early Moods West Coast Spring 2025 w/ Magick Potion
4/06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High
4/08 – Seattle, WA @ Clockout Lounge
4/09 – Vancouver BC @ Wise Hall
4/10 – Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown
4/11 – Portland, OR @ Twilight Cafe
4/12 – Eugene, OR @ John Henry’s
4/15 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
4/16 – Reno, NV @ LoBar Social
4/17 – Oakland, CA @ Stork Club
4/18 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewing

https://linktr.ee/earlymoods
https://www.instagram.com/early_moods
https://www.facebook.com/earlymoods/
https://earlymoods.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecords.com/

Early Moods, A Sinner’s Past (2024)

If the stink off your sweaty belly-button lint could be a sound, would it not be Vape Warlök? The must-be-this-stoned-to-ride Los Angeles sludge absurdity-worship outfit are gearing up for the April 20 release of their awaited full-length debut, …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. Comprised of five tracks that are no doubt correspondingly rife with Cimmerian-style declaratives and running a light-on-mercy 41 minutes, the album unfolds like the darkest, most lurching moments of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum if their arthouse fare had been tainted by not the drugs from real life, but the drugs from after school specials in the early 1990s, keeping one foot firmly in the ridiculous and the other on your throat, sonically speaking, forever.

Vocals are indecipherable save for the early going of 11-minute closer “Bongmaster General,” the nod is all-consuming, and nary a fuck is given when it’s time to throw open the doors for the synth solo in “Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue,” which opens side B. As a whole work, it is gloriously dumb — even more so on headphones — massive in its lurch, and misanthropic; not a gritty reboot of Electric Wizard, but a logical extrapolation of some of what that band’s nasty ’90s era brought to doom in the first place, which I guess is the sense that somebody very, very stoned is about to stab you.

I suppose that in stylistic terms, one might consider Vape Warlök bong metal for their over-the-top, all-in take on stoner tropes and skull-powdering tonal heft, but it matters less when “Satan’s Succubus” (video premiering below) moves on from its sampled classic-horror trailer setup into the chug itself. No, they’re not fucking subtle. “Satan’s Succubus” grows atmospheric in its first verse, introducing the rasp of guitarist/synthesist The Count — bassist The Duchess adds vocals as well, I’m not sure where, and drummer The Baron also contributes samples — which becomes a defining element of the album as a whole, and setting up the blend of ultra-low distortion and floatier synth that feels distinctive even in a world where Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard once roamed.

Vape Warlök have a not entirely dissimilar instrumental mindset, but the harshness of the vocals everywhere but in the aforementioned first verse of “Bongmaster General” is purposeful and an essential part of the character of the band.

That is, it’s not just screaming to cover for someone’s lack of confidence in their melodic range. It’s part of the world being built in the songs.

And that world is a place so dark it’s almost too hard to see for it to be ethereal. And who even knows what’s on the ground being scorched? The lumber turns into a slam on “…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong,” which is delightfully filthy and despite being set largely to a single slow-motion march has room for a max-yuckface metal breakdown later on and a guitar solo that seems to be making fun of itself even as it goes. Noise and blearly-eyed ritual ensues, which if Vape Warlök were going to put a sticker outside the LP, would be a candidate for a flag to fly.

The title-track starts heavy and gets heavier, and I’m pretty sure the bit about drugs at the start of “Meth Slave” — as opposed to the bit about drugs at the start of any of the other songs; by “bit” I mean sample, apparently — comes from The State, which, if true, would be enough on its own to put …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong on my dude-of-a-certain-age demographic radar, but charm isn’t in short supply elsewhere, coming through, not so much in spite of the filth surrounding, but like the gorilla flinging it at you, reveling in it and having a damn good time even if you need new clothes as a result.

Vape Warlök are superlatively heavy, and obviously the call not to take …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong too seriously is resonant from the skullbong blacklight poster artwork on through the murky psychedelia of the “Satan’s Succubus” video and the grueling chicanery that ensues from the opener onward. At the same time, Vape Warlök aren’t so easy to discount as being just-fuckery. That there would be an awareness of their place in the genre isn’t a surprise — they’re veteran players, just with fun nicknames — but while Vape Warlök prioritize the crushing and the caustic with a tectonic weight-of-riff, they’re still basically party metal.

I mean, don’t tell anybody, right? Don’t tell anybody where the party is, because there might be a human sacrifice later — no virgin, they canceled — and at the very least everybody’s gonna dump the little pilly bits out of the plastic capsules or just crush up their meds, mix it all in a bowl, snort it and see what happens, and they don’t want the cops to show up. Like Desert Sessions, but stunk like death-adjacence. Not saying it’s going to be a violent orgy, but definitely not not saying it either.

Debut album of the year? Debut album of the blegh.

Middle fingers up, kids. This is a good one. PR wire info follows the clip below. Please enjoy:

Vape Warlök, “Satan’s Succubus” video premiere

Preorder link: https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/album/and-his-skull-shall-make-my-bong

The lead-off track from VW’s first full-length “… And His Skull Shall Make My Bong”

Like a C.H.U.D. from the sewer, vile dumpster-doomsters Vape Warlök emerge under cover of darkness to spread their slime-slathered terror, violating the minds and hearts of all who dare listen to the infrasonic molasses-riffs oozing from the devil’s boom box speakers.

And so it is with “Satan’s Succubus,” the lead-off track and first single/video from the California trio’s forthcoming long-player …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. At 66.6 beats per minute, this unrelenting cauldon of primitive riffs and acrid demon-yowls is like RU-486 for your ears, purging all that is pure and good from your body and filling the husk that’s left with bongwater, sex juices, and sin.

Comprising members of Unida, High Priestess, and Circle of Sighs, Vape Warlök takes no solace in subtlety, complexity, or production values. These are dirt-stupid riffs tuned lower than imaginable, played slower than imaginable, and presented with the fidelity of a sewer main exploding during a mudslide. If you’ve come here for good taste, you’re in the wrong place. But if you like no bullshit Satan-coded stoner-sludge-doom that meets at the fork of the two Dopes (to wit …smoker and …throne) then this just might be your shit.

…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. There is no hope, only doom.

Streaming, download, and physical media arrive on April 20, 2025.

VAPE WARLÖK IS
THE COUNT (Collyn McCoy) – Guitar, Vox, Synths
THE BARON (Phillip Rodriquez) – Drums, Samples
THE DUCHESS (Mariana Fiel) – Bass, Vox

Vape Warlök on Instagram

Vape Warlök on Soundcloud

Vape Warlök on Bandcamp

It hasn’t been that long since Early Moods were last out on the Pacific Coast supporting their 2024 album, A Sinner’s Past (review here), but by the time April comes around, November will have been an eternity ago. The doomly upstarts have begun the shift from opening to headlining, and if their trajectory holds, it would make sense to see them in the years to come with more tours like this one, a quick 10-date regional jaunt supported by an upstart band on their label, RidingEasy Records. The Fall tour, I’ll note, was co-headlining with Castle Rat, and it’s Maryland’s boogie-prone heavy classic rockers Magick Potion playing first on this run, so Early Moods continue to keep good company and find ways to hold onto the momentum they’ve been riding for at least the last three years since they started touring.

Europe in 2025? Almost certainly, as Early Moods have already been confirmed for Freak Valley Festival in Germany this June and will likely have dates around that. Their sound, familiar in its doomly pastiche but energetic and modern in presentation, speaks directly to the doomly converted but has the power to reach across metallic subgenres as well. This has let them become one of the underground’s most hopeful prospects, and if they keep going the way they are, they might elbow their way to the forefront of an up and coming generation of doom that’s barely starting to take shape in their wake. I’d love to find this post again in five years and see what I think. I’ll set a reminder in my phone.

Dates came from Nanotear‘s social media:

West coast we have not forsaken you! Early Moods + Magick Potion are coming…

All shows on sale now: https://linktr.ee/earlymoods

4/06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High
4/08 – Seattle, WA @ Clockout Lounge
4/09 – Vancouver BC @ Wise Hall
4/10 – Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown
4/11 – Portland, OR @ Twilight Cafe
4/12 – Eugene, OR @ John Henry’s
4/15 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
4/16 – Reno, NV @ LoBar Social
4/17 – Oakland, CA @ Stork Club
4/18 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewing

https://linktr.ee/earlymoods
https://www.instagram.com/early_moods
https://www.facebook.com/earlymoods/
https://earlymoods.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecords.com/

Early Moods, A Sinner’s Past (2024)

It would seem to have worked out the first time if the somewhat exhausted but contently familiar faces of Salem’s Bend and Sons of Arrakis in the photo are anything to go by. At least those you can see. The two bands, from Los Angeles and Montreal, respectively, set out together this past February and March on a run of six joint Canadian shows, and this West Coasty stint coming up at the end of January would seem to be a fitting answer to that.

Further impetus, of course, is provided by the stopthrough in Las Vegas for Sons of Arrakis to play the opening night of Planet Desert Rock Weekend V, but it’s always nice to know that two bands enjoyed each other’s company enough to want to ever speak or play a show together again, let alone potentially share space, gear and/or van stink for upwards of a week’s time.

One difference between this year (2025) and last is that in 2024, Sons of Arrakis released Volume II (review here), which is certainly a thing to consider. Oh, and I didn’t actually see a poster for the tour, which is called ‘Great Scattering Part II,’ but there’s a credit for one to Bill Kole in the social media post below. If you read this and have it, I’m happy to add it to the post after the fact. Thanks.

Please note that all event links below are live. It took me an embarrassingly long time this morning to cut and paste hyperlinks between tabs, so yes, I’m pointing it out. I probably got them wrong, so heads up there too, I guess:

⚡️Great Scattering Tour Part II⚡️

One month to go before we hop on a plane to Los Angeles to reunite with our friends from Salem’s Bend ! Visas are sorted, gear is ready, and we’re fired up!

We had so much fun on our Great Scattering tour through Québec and Ontario earlier this year that we just had to make a Part II ⚡️

Cheers to our partners at Ripple Music, Black Throne Productions and Vegas Rock Revolution for making it happen!

Scope the dates below and we’ll see you on the road!

Jan 28th – Palmdale (CA) Transplants Brewing Company w/ Salem’s Bend X SuperDope 76
Event : Sons of Arrakis X Salem’s Bend X SuperDope76

————————————————————–

Jan 29th – San Diego (CA) Til Two Club w/ Salem’s Bend and Formula 400
Event : SONS OF ARRAKIS / SALEM’S BEND / FORMULA 400

————————————————————–

Jan 30th – Las Vegas (NV) Count’s Vamp’d for Planet Desert Rock Weekend V – Jan. 30+31+ Feb. 1 in VEGAS
Event : Planet Desert Rock Night 1- Unida/Mr. Bison/Sons of Arrakis/Samavayo Thurs January 30 at Vamp’d

————————————————————–

Jan 31st – Los Angeles (CA) The Slipper Clutch w/ Salem’s Bend X Formation Ritual
Event : Sons of Arrakis X Salem’s Bend X Formation Ritual

————————————————————–

Feb 1st – San Francisco (CA) Thee Parkside w/ Salem’s Bend X LAZER BEAM X Star Decay Band
Event : Trixie Rasputin Presents: Sons of Arrakis, Salem’s Bend, Lazer Beam, & Star Decay at Thee Parkside!

————————————————————–

Poster : Bill Kole
Photo : Rémi Deschenes

https://salemsbend.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/salemsbend/
https://www.instagram.com/salemsbend/

https://www.sonsofarrakis.com/
https://sonsofarrakis.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sonsofarrakisband
https://www.instagram.com/sonsofarrakis/

Salem’s Bend, “No Blood in Bone” (2021)

Sons of Arrakis, Volume II (2024)

The inevitable story of Dead Meadow‘s upcoming full-length, Voyager to Voyager, is that it will be the long-running heavy psych/gaze rockers’ last with bassist Steve Kille, whose health was reportedly already in decline when the recording was made and who passed away earlier this year. The band, with guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon and drummer Mark Laughlin, have not announced who, if anyone, will be handling low end when they take to the stage — they were recently confirmed for Freak Valley and will likely have other plans besides — but the new label, new record, live bookings and the streaming single “The Space Between” certainly answer the question of their future.

There’s some noteworthy tension early in the seven-minute opening cut from Voyager to Voyager, and it gets a payoff that’s certainly earned and feels purposeful from a songwriting standpoint, but the overarching impression remains Dead Meadow in its languidity and in Simon‘s calm, melodic vocal searching. The band’s last studio release was the PostWax/Blues Funeral experimentalist work Force From Free (discussed here), and this will be their first offering through Heavy Psych Sounds.

You probably already saw this. I don’t care. I want it here because it’s relevant and for my own future reference, so it’s here. From the PR wire:

DEAD MEADOW share first single off new album “Voyager To Voyager”; out March 28th on Heavy Psych Sounds

US heavy psychedelic rock luminaries DEAD MEADOW present their new single “The Space Between”, taken from their upcoming tenth studio album and final recording with late bassist Steve Kille. “Voyager To Voyager” will be released worldwide on March 28th and available to preorder now through Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

Dead Meadow’s highly anticipated tenth studio album Voyager to Voyager marks a defining moment in their illustrious 26-year journey. Revered as a pioneering force in the heavy psychedelic rock scene since their formation in the late ’90s, the band delivers not only their most emotionally charged and sonically expansive album to date but also a powerful tribute to their brother, late bassist Steve Kille, whose battle against cancer and untimely passing in early 2024 has made it the poignant end of a chapter in the band’s history.

“The Space Between” is the opening track on the band’s most compositionally eclectic and sonically adventurous album to date. The song opens with thirty seconds of droning synth strings, underpinned by a haunting four-note synthesizer melody, building to an anxious crescendo. Jason Simon’s vocals — dark and compelling, the inimitable phrasing instantly recognizable — are put to the service of lyrics exploring interstellar themes and imagery; the dance of matter and anti-matter, expansion by negation, emptiness seething with activity, the expanding Universe and the space in-between.

While the song traffics in the heavy riff-rock that has always been the band’s musical grounding, “The Space Between” adds a jazzy, prog-rock sophistication that suggests new directions for the band, perhaps a portal opening in the space-time continuum that is the Dead Meadow Universe. In the song’s final movement, Simon introduces guitar harmonies that conjure up the best of Deep Purple and Iron Maiden, before unleashing a positively kaleidoscopic guitar solo that ranks with his very best. The song ends with layers of guitar riffs peaking like exclamation points and inviting the listener into the deep end of Dead Meadow’s latest invention.

New album “Voyager To Voyager”
Out March 28th, 2025 on Heavy Psych Sounds – Preorder: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

TRACKLIST:
1. The Space Between
2. Not The Season
3. The Unhounded Now
4. A Wave Away
5. A Question of Will
6. Dead Tree Shake
7. Small Acts of Kindness
8. Voyager to Voyager

Written and recorded across three intense sessions in downtown LA’s Ultrasound Studios, Voyager to Voyager perfectly encapsulates Dead Meadow’s raw energy and creative chemistry. During the sessions, the band worked quickly, using only the first or second take to preserve the immediacy found in their live show, with drummer Mark Laughlin delivering some of his best performances to date.

Its creation, however, was shaped by personal hardship. In early 2023, the trio began writing and recording, but it wasn’t until later that year that bassist Steve Kille’s health began to decline. In January 2024, just weeks before the final tracking sessions, he was diagnosed with cancer but remained steadfast, fueling the band’s resolve to stay on course and finish the album. As they entered Dave Grohl’s legendary Studio 606 to mix the record, Steve’s health continued to deteriorate, yet his creative influence and presence were felt throughout the process, even as he was confined to a couch during the final mixing sessions. However, the final mixes didn’t quite capture the magic they had hoped for. Guitarist and vocalist Jason Simon reflects, “The famed Sound City Neve board did impart a certain mojo but jumping into an unfamiliar space can be tricky and some of the mixes didn’t feel quite right. So I decided to start over, mixing the record at my own studio. The task was herculean, but in the end the new mixes felt like they should, like classic Dead Meadow. I’m really happy with how each song turned out, and I know Steve would agree.”

The result is an album that is unmistakably Dead Meadow: expansive, melody-driven, and deeply rooted in their unique sound — one that honors both their roots and the cosmic imagery that defines Voyager to Voyager. Lyrically, the album delves into themes of space, isolation, and human connection, with the opening track, “The Space Between,” drawing from the theory of the universe’s continual expansion as a metaphor for strained relationships. The title track “Voyager to Voyager” reflects Simon’s fascination with the two Voyager spacecrafts — humanity’s farthest traveling creation, now venturing into interstellar space as well as representing a message between travelers, an understanding shared between those who have embarked on a genuine journey, whether together or apart.

Steve Kille’s passing in April 2024 has made this whole album all the more meaningful. “We’ve lost a bandmate, a brother, a friend, and a creative partner on this voyage of 26 years as Dead Meadow,” Simon says. “We are so very thankful to have this LP of new material, as Steve laid down his final bass line shortly before he became too sick to really play.” While Voyager to Voyager is anything but a tribute album, it does ultimately stand as a celebration of Kille’s immeasurable legacy. His unique and endlessly creative bass playing helped shape Dead Meadow’s sound while his singular artistic vision created iconic album covers and defined the band’s visual identity.

With Voyager to Voyager, Dead Meadow once again affirms their place in the pantheon of modern psych rock by pushing their sound to new heights, all the while honoring the deep creative bond they have shared through nearly three decades of melting minds worldwide… and perhaps even beyond that time and space continuum. The end of a chapter and a cosmic journey we shall embrace fully.

DEAD MEADOW is
Jason Simon – vocals, guitars
Steve Kille – bass
Mark Laughlin – drums

https://www.facebook.com/DeadMeadowOfficial/
https://www.instagram.com/thedeadmeadow/
https://deadmeadow.bandcamp.com/
http://www.deadmeadow.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Dead Meadow, “The Space Between”

There’s a lot of info below, but the parts you really need first are there in caps: Dead Meadow have signed to Heavy Psych Sounds. That means a new album is on the way — the band’s last studio release was Force From Free in 2022 through Blues Funeral Recordings — as well as a new EP, some catalog reissues and back-album sales. The new LP goes up for preorder next week. That’s the long and short of it.

Whatever it’s called, the next Dead Meadow will be a bittersweet advent in light the passing of bassist Steve Kille earlier this year. The good news is Kille played on the recordings and so the album can be issued in a spirit of tribute to his contributions to the band, which along with guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon and drummer Mark Laughlin, resulted in a psych-gaze sound the influence of which has only grown in recent years.

January or February release? Probably. It’d be a hell of a start to Heavy Psych Sounds‘ year, but we’ll probably find out more in a couple weeks when the preorders start, unless there’s another announcement between now and then leaking out some detail or other of what to expect.

From the PR wire:

We’re really stoked to announce that the US psychedelic rock legends DEAD MEADOW are now part of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Family !!!

“We are really honored to welcome such an incredible band in our roster. We touched base for the first time in 2021 with Dead Meadow bass player Steve and the feelings were great from the first moment. We were devastated when he passed away early this year. We decided to continue the work with Jason and we are sure this collaboration will be very fruitful.”

Here’s what you can expect coming out in the next months:

BRAND NEW FULL LENGTH SINCE 2018 “The Nothing They Need”
BRAND NEW EP
REISSUING PART OF THE DISCOGRAPHY IN NEW COLOURED VINYLS
ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY AVAILABLE FROM HPS WEBSITE

PRESALE OF THE NEW ALBUM: WILL START IN DECEMBER 2024

SAYS THE BAND

“We are happy to announce that an all new Dead Meadow LP will be released early next year on the one and only Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Steve, Mark, and I had been working on this record throughout 2023, finishing and tracking the final songs in January of this year. We are excited and extremely thankful to have an entire record featuring Steve’s bass and creative influence to still share with the world.”

BIOGRAPHY

Dead Meadow’s unique marriage of Sabbath riffs, dreamy layers of guitar-fuzz bliss, and singer Jason Simon’s melodic croon have won over psychedelic pop/rock and stoner rock fans alike. Although the band’s members met while attending all-ages shows in and around Washington, D.C.’s punk/indie scene, the trio draws more of its sound from such classic rock legends as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. The trio formed in the fall of 1998 with singer/guitarist Simon, bassist Steve Kille, and drummer Mark Laughlin. The three members set out to fuse their love of early-’70s hard rock and ’60s psychedelia into their distinct sound.

They released their eight song debut album in 1999. Within a relatively short period, the D.C. trio received offers to tour with everyone from local D.C. acts like The Make-Up and Fugazi to psychedelic rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The much acclaimed debut was quickly followed by 2001’s “Howls from the Hills”, recorded at friend Stephen McCarty’s (who would later join Dead Meadow) grandparent’s farm house in rural Indiana and also released on Tolotta Records.

The band signed with Matador Records in early 2003 and released “Shivering King and Others”. Along with the heavy feel and blues-influenced songs, as found on the previous two records, the band incorporated a more layered and dense sound, and continued in their psychedelic style.

With the addition of long time friend Cory Shane as second guitarist, the band released the much acclaimed “Feathers” LP in 2005 on Matador Records. This record incorporated the heavy sound of Dead Meadow with a somewhat more dreamlike feel and included a great deal of two guitar interplay between Cory and Jason.

2007 saw the band reverting back to a three piece and relocating from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, CA. “Old Growth”, the fifth studio album was released in 2008 on Matador Records.

In 2010 Dead Meadow released a feature length live film and soundtrack, “Three Kings”, that spotlighted their live show and included psychedelic dream sequences that follow a loose storyline.

Stephen McCarty left the band and original drummer Mark Laughlin returned. The group spent a long, patient time self-producing and recording 2013’s epic double-album-length release “Warble Womb”, also released on Xemu records.

With the release of the LP “The Nothing they Need” in 2018, Steve and Jason celebrate twenty years of Dead Meadow with eight songs that feature everyone that has been musically involved with the band over the years.

The Lockdown of 2020 gave the band some much needed rest from touring though two live records were released.

Throughout 2023 Dead Meadow performed sporadically and began work on a new full length LP for Heavy Psych Sounds Records. The band completed tracking the record in January of 2024 shortly after finding out the terrible news that bass player Steve Kille had been diagnosed with Cancer. Though he began Chemo within a month or so the cancer had progressed too far and was too aggressive to be stopped. Steve Kille passed away on April 14th, 2024 leaving an incredible legacy of utterly unique bass playing, a singular artistic vision, and boundless creativity. Band members, friends, and fans alike were devastated but the outpouring of love for Steve as a musician, friend, and amazing human being was a beautiful thing to see.

The upcoming Heavy Psych Sounds LP was entirely written and recorded with Steve at full capacity and band is incredibly thankful to have an entire new record to still share with the world.

https://www.facebook.com/DeadMeadowOfficial/
https://www.instagram.com/thedeadmeadow/
https://deadmeadow.bandcamp.com/
http://www.deadmeadow.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Dead Meadow, I Found the Key (2024)